The Danger of the Compromised Life: Moses vs. Pharaoh

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by some special friends of this ministry. Pastor Greg? I wanted to say a special word of thanks to the Harvest Partners who make this ministry possible.

Next time you're online, check out Pastor Greg's personal blog at blog.GregLaurie.com. So let's hear God's word as we ought to hear it and let it change our life. Because if we don't hear it the way we ought to hear it, it can harden our heart. An inoculation can keep us from getting a disease. What's in the inoculation? Often it's a small dose of the disease itself.

It causes our bodies to build up resistance. Well today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie says we can build up a similar resistance to God's word when we get small doses of that truth but ignore what God says. Today Pastor Greg shows us how to respond to Scripture appropriately and let it turn us into the men and women God wants us to be.

We're going to turn to two passages today. Hebrews 11 which is sort of our base text for this series that we're doing that we're calling World Changers. But also I want you to turn to Exodus chapter 5. And we're going to be working through a few chapters in Exodus as we look at the amazing life before us.

And the title of the message is, The Danger of the Compromised Life. Now you remember it took a while for the Lord to whip Moses into shape. It was always God's plan that Moses would be the one to deliver the Israelites from the bondage of Pharaoh in Egypt. But Moses well let's just say he acted a bit premature and took matters into his own hands and he made a horrible mess of it.

You know the story. He was raised in the court of the Pharaoh by the daughter of Pharaoh. But one day even though he was groomed to possibly be the next Pharaoh of Egypt he saw an Egyptian slave driver mistreating Hebrew and he stepped in and killed that Egyptian man. And then he ran to the hills because the Pharaoh effectively put a contract out on him. And there on the backside of the desert 40 years later the Lord spoke to Moses from a bush that would not stop burning. And God said, Moses you're my man and I'm going to use you to deliver the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt. Moses had a bunch of excuses. God responded and the Lord told Moses it's not going to be easy.

But what I want you to do is take them three days journey into the wilderness. So Moses was ready. His heart was full of faith and courage. And by the way faith and fear cannot coexist together.

One drives out the other. When faith walks in fear walks out. So if you're filled with fear today maybe you just need a lot more faith. Because these people that changed the world that we're talking about they did it by faith.

That's the operative word. They believed God at His word. And here's what we learned in Hebrews 11 verse 27. It says it was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt not fearing the king's anger.

He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible. It was by faith. You see because he had faith he did not have fear. And the thing that prompted his faith and sustained his faith was keeping his eyes on Jesus. Looking to the Lord.

And when you have your eyes on the Lord you can do amazing things. And when you take your eyes off of the Lord you're going to face defeat. So let's see what happens now when Moses has his first confrontation with the great Pharaoh of Egypt. Now let's flip over to Exodus chapter 5.

Starting in verse 1. Afterwards Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. The Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord? Why should I obey His voice to let Israel go? I don't know the Lord.

Nor will I let Israel go. And they said, The God of the Hebrews is meant with us. Please let us go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God. Lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.

We will stop there. So now the big moment has come. Moses walks into the court of the Pharaoh and says, Let my people go. This angered the Pharaoh for a number of reasons. First of all no one talked like this to the Pharaoh. He was a powerful man worshipped as a God by the Egyptians. The landscape was dotted with monuments erected to Pharaoh.

With just a word he could have a man or a woman executed on the spot. And who is this shepherd that comes into his court? And by the way back in this day the Egyptians regarded the shepherds as the lowest of the low. They were sort of the telemarketers of their day.

I don't know what to compare them to. And so for Moses to come in as a shepherd and just to confirm the fact he has been a shepherd the Lord tells him, Take your staff in to see Pharaoh. Because his staff was going to do a super cool trick in a few moments.

It was going to turn into a snake. Let my people go. And the Pharaoh thought, There is no way I am going to do this. And he opposed Moses and he hid him where it hurt because he made the slavery of the Jews even worse. Saying, Take the straw out of the brick.

Make them go get their own straws. And now the Israelites are ticked off at Moses. Pharaoh is not responding to Moses. Ever have one of those days where you think you are doing the will of God and all the doors shut in your face? And you are saying, What went wrong?

Well that is just the way it goes sometimes. But Moses was not going to back down. Now flip over to Exodus 7 verse 10. So Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh and they did so just as the Lord commanded. And Aaron cast down the rod, this is the shepherd's staff now, before Pharaoh and before his servants and he became a snake. But Pharaoh also had wise men and sorcerers and the magicians of Egypt.

They did the same thing with their enchantments. Every man threw down his rod and they became snakes. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods and Pharaoh's heart grew hard and he did not heed them as the Lord had said. So now a series of judgments are going to come upon Egypt.

Each one is going to be directed specifically against a god of Egypt. You see the Egyptians worshiped Pharaoh as god. They worshiped the Nile River as god. They worshiped animals as god. They worshiped frogs as god. They worshiped all kinds of crazy things. And so God is going to bring a series of ten judgments or plagues against Egypt each leveled at one of the gods they worshiped. The first thing that happens is Moses rod becomes a serpent.

Presumably a cobra. Which by the way was a symbol of Egypt. You can look at ancient Egyptian antiquities today and see the cobra was a part of their whole look and their whole kingdom. And so the magicians, these guys on the payroll of the Pharaoh, are able to replicate this miracle. Now this is very interesting that they have this power. Which shows us the devil has certain power. Satan is not the equal of God. Sometimes people think whatever God can do the devil can do.

That is not true. God is all powerful. The devil's power is limited. God is all knowing. The devil's knowledge is limited. God can be everywhere at one time. The devil can only be in one place at one time. But having said that he is very powerful and he can do certain signs and even what we might call false miracles.

And here one is done. The Pharaoh's magicians do the same miracle in quotes that Moses and Aaron do. Which reminds us that one of the devil's most effective tactics is imitation.

You know he will try to stop a work outright but he often will imitate and this will minimize the power and glory of God and divert us. You know sometimes people stand up and they say, I am a follower of Jesus. And they will make a public proclamation. And then they will maybe fall away or do something that would contradict what they said. And we will respond, well why did they come to Christ and fall away from Christ?

Here is a thought. Maybe they never came to Christ at all. Just because someone says they are a Christian doesn't mean they are a Christian. The only way I will know if a person is a Christian is by the way they live. I can't see their heart. I can't see their faith.

I can only see their actions. And if their actions contradict what they have said are they really a Christian? The apostle Paul asks the question in Corinthians, check up on yourselves. Are you really a Christian? Are you just pretending to be a Christian when you really aren't one at all?

This is an imitation that the devil brings in to dilute, to confuse, to deceive. And sure enough the Pharaoh's heart gets hard. In just a moment we will see how God responds to Pharaoh's hardness of heart. We will see it is spectacular and miraculous.

That is coming up. So many listeners have commented on the encouragement they receive from these daily messages. God's Word ministers to them and it often gets them through some of their darkest hours. I frequently listen to Pastor Greg on Christian radio in my area. He was extremely helpful when my husband of 43 years suddenly and unexpectedly went to be with the Lord in January of this year. He was retired and I had just retired in May and we had plans for our retirement years.

However, God's plans were quite the opposite. Needless to say I felt like my life was ripped out from under me. While listening to Pastor Greg one day he spoke of the promise of hope after the loss of a loved one. Of course he was speaking about the loss of his son. I am still in the grieving process but his message helped me find hope and some peace.

I continue to move forward through this trial. God is so good. Every time I cry out for comfort and strength he puts the right message or person in my path. So thank you for all you do. Have these daily studies ministered to you and your family? If so, would you let us know? You can tell your story by calling 1-866-871-1144.

That's 866-871-1144. Well today Pastor Greg is helping us study the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh. Learning how we can guard ourselves against hardness of heart.

Let's continue. Here comes plague number one. The Nile River has turned to blood. That is on Exodus 7 14-18. God directs Moses to go over with his staff and he calls Pharaoh to come and watch.

And he puts his staff in the water and it turns to blood. Now not only did the Egyptians worship the Nile but that was also the source of food supply. It was a source of drinking water.

They would use that water for bathing, for cooking, for cleaning, laundry. Plus they got fish out of that Nile River. And now it is all turned to blood. But the magicians come along.

Oh that is no big deal. We can do it too. And they take what little clear water there is and turn that to blood. It would almost seem to be a bit more logical if the magicians of Pharaoh could turn the bloody water back to clear.

That would be helpful. But they took what little clear water was left and turned that to blood. Whoever said sin makes sense. Here is something I have discovered after years of walking with the Lord. Sin makes you stupid.

It does. Sin makes you stupid. I know clear thinking people, or at least I thought they were clear thinking, intelligent people, do the most irrational things under the control of sin. As a great theologian Forrest Gump once said, Stupid is as the stupid does.

Really bad Forrest Gump imitation. And because of this devilish imitation the Pharaoh hardens his heart. But really what was happening was God was striking down their God.

He was saying you worship the Nile as a God. Your God just failed you. Your God isn't real. Where is your God now?

You know we can have God's too with a small g. A God, an idol, is anything or anyone that takes the place of the Lord God in our life. You know some people make God's out of careers. Some even ministries. Some make God's out of relationships. Some make God's out of possessions.

That becomes the most important thing to them. And sometimes something will happen to remove that God that has blocked the true Lord out of our lives. Maybe you are terminated from your job.

Maybe the relationship unravels. Maybe the object you worship is stolen or damaged. Or whatever it is your God is knocked over and you realize it was never a true God at all.

And it opens your eyes to see your need for the true and living God. And here is Pharaoh. He has seen the Nile River turn to blood. But still his heart gets hard. In fact Exodus 7 23 says he returned to his palace and put the whole thing out of his mind.

He is like, ah big deal. Now plague number two comes. An invasion of frogs.

That is in Exodus 8. And this is a crazy plague. Frogs everywhere. You know when I lived in Hawaii years ago as a kid.

We used to walk around everywhere barefoot. And you know so at night you would walk around barefoot and sometimes step on frogs. There are lots of frogs in Hawaii. And they are big frogs. And I will tell you that is gross. You know have you ever stepped on a snail barefoot? That is so bad. A frog is worse.

It is like ribbit. Is there a frog on my foot? Oh no. There were frogs everywhere the Bible says. There were frogs on the floor. There were frogs in the chairs. There were frogs in the ovens. There were frogs in the bed. You know you would kiss your wife good night. Good night honey.

I love you. Ribbit. And it is a funny thing because the Egyptians worshipped a frog god. His name in Egyptian was Kermoto.

I made that up. Remember Kermit? Kermit the Frog Sesame Street Muse.

It was actually called Heget. H-E-G-E-T. They worshipped a frog. What a stupid thing to worship. God says you want frogs? Is this your god? Here is a whole bunch of gods to worship.

Have fun gang. Yeah and there were frogs everywhere. And then the Pharaoh goes to Moses and says make these frogs go away. And then Moses prays and the frogs all die. The only thing worse than a living frog is a dead frog. I am stinking.

I am coming back to my childhood in Hawaii. We would get up in the morning and there would be all these frogs laying on the street that were run over by cars. They were like in this little position. And they made great little Frisbees. Frog Frisbee.

They were only good for one throw. It fell apart. But this is all true. And the Bible says the land stank. I love that word stank. That is a good biblical word if someone isn't smelling well. You need to take a shower.

Bro man you would be stinking. The land stank. So Pharaoh of course. Now his heart softened and he responded no. Exodus 8.15. Pharaoh saw there was relief and he hardened his heart.

This is so typical of nonbelievers. Pharaoh asked Moses to call on God. And Moses did.

And once the crisis was gone Pharaoh said great I will go back to being hard again. I heard about a hospital chaplain who kept a record of some 2,000 patients. All of whom were near death.

Or at least thought they were. And what he found was of those who were sorry and repentant for their sins. When they were stored back to health he felt only two out of 2,000 showed a marked change in their spiritual lives after their recovery.

In other words when they thought they were dying. Oh God help me. Oh God I turn to you. And then when they recovered. Oh thanks God. See you later. That is what the Pharaoh was doing.

Oh you got me out of this mess. Well I will just go back to hardening my heart. So what is going on with this heart of Pharaoh? And this raises one of the apparent contradictions in the Bible. Because we read here that Pharaoh hardened his heart. But then later on in Exodus 10 one we read God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Contradiction. Who hardened the heart?

Was it God or was it Pharaoh? The answer. Both. It is not a contradiction. It is two sides of the same coin.

Initially Pharaoh hardened his heart. Listen. God has given to you a free will. The choice is yours. You decide if you will go to heaven or hell. You decide if you will follow Christ or Satan. You decide if your sins will be forgiven or you will have to give an account for them.

That is all up to you. But once you have made that decision God in effect will strengthen you in it. If it is a decision to follow Christ He will strengthen you in that decision. Because a better translation of the word used when it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart would be God strengthened or stiffened Pharaoh's heart. So Pharaoh initially hardened his heart and God confirmed him in that hardness. So you are the one who decides ultimately but then the Lord will confirm you in the position you hold. He will not violate your free will. He will not overrule your free will. And that is exactly what happened to Pharaoh.

And his heart got harder and harder and the more signs that were done before him the harder his heart got. And that sort of addresses the idea of people believing if they see a miracle. You know you are thinking man if I could perform a miracle I know all of my nonbelieving friends would come to Christ. If I could like have the burgers out in the grill and if I could call fire from heaven on the burgers they would believe right there in the spot. No they wouldn't.

They wouldn't believe. Because miracle after miracle was done for Pharaoh. And more to the point when Christ walked this earth He healed people of leprosy. He restored sight to the blind.

Hearing to the deaf. He even raised people from the dead. He walked on water man.

What more do you want? And by and large almost all of the people turned against Him demanding His crucifixion and His death. No. We don't need to do a miracle to cause people to believe. Here is what Jesus said. A wicked and an adulterous generation seeks after a sign. But no sign will be given to them but that of the prophet Jonah.

And as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the Son of Man, speaking of Himself, be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. What does that mean? Let me loosely paraphrase that.

And I think I am doing justice to what He was saying. People don't need a miracle. They don't need a sign.

Here is a sign they need. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That is our message to this culture. Jesus loves you. Jesus died for you. Jesus rose again from the dead. And Jesus will come and take residence in your heart.

That is a sign we need backed up by a godly lifestyle. Listen to this. How does one get a hardened heart? You might be surprised by my answer. You get a hardened heart by continued exposure to the truth of God and a refusal to obey and respond to it.

Let me say that again. You get a hard heart by continued exposure to the Word of God or the truth of God and a refusal on your part to obey and respond to it. We might think that the worst thing that can happen to a person is that they get into some sexual lifestyle be it drinking or partying or drugs or whatever it is.

But listen. There is more chance for the person who is in the grip of some specific sin and still retains a heart and a conscience than for the man or woman who is hardened. And where is the easiest place to get a hardened heart? Right here. Yes you heard me right.

Right here in church. Because some will hear the Word of God and they will receive the Word of God and they will obey the Word of God and they will be changed by God. And others will hear the Word of God. They may not even hear it.

They may have earplugs in or doing something else. But they will just blow it off and then their heart will get hard hearing God's Word. So let's hear God's Word as we ought to hear it and let it change our life because if we don't hear it the way we ought to hear it, it can harden our heart and you can end up like Pharaoh. Pastor Greg Laurie with the solution to a dangerous condition. As he continues his series called World Changers, he's bringing us important insights from the story of Moses and Pharaoh here on A New Beginning. And Pastor Greg has an important way to close today's study so stay tuned. Now the title of today's message is The Danger of the Compromised Life. If you didn't hear the whole study you can get a replay at harvest.org or listen by way of our Harvest mobile app. For a copy of the study on CD call 1-800-821-3300 any time 24 hours a day.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Pastor Greg, I was thinking the other day about power steering. You know, what a marvelous invention it is.

You can change the direction of a two-ton car with just a one-finger turn of the steering wheel. Well Christmas is coming when the mega billion dollar retail industry is poised to steer our kids toward the latest toy or gizmo. And we might need a little power steering to turn them back toward Christ. You might have a suggestion for us today?

Well I just happen to have a really good suggestion. And it's called the Jesus Storybook Bible Christmas Collection. Stories, songs, and reflections for the Advent season written by our good friend Sally Lloyd-Jones. And this is absolutely delightful. Sally is a prolific writer and is especially effective in communicating with the little ones. And she has done it again in this amazing new project which actually has some interactive features. So it kind of addresses that need for gadgetry a little bit. Because not only do you have her text as she tells the Christmas story in a way that only she does.

It's just so simple and profound and at times you smile and it's just very effectively written. But there are interactive moments where you can press a little button and you hear the voice of the tremendous actor David Suchet. Am I pronouncing his name correctly, Sally?

Yes, you absolutely are. And he plays Kathy, what is the role, I'm here with my wife Kathy and Sally. What does he inspector, how do you pronounce his name? Hercule Poirot. Yes.

Good. Poirot. Poirot.

Poirot. And the guy's a great actor and he has faith in Christ. And he lends his impressive voice to this project. So here's how, it's a beautifully illustrated piece of work, illustrations by Jago who's working with Sally. Am I pronouncing Jago's name correctly? Jago. Jago, let's get that right. Illustrations by Jago and he's worked on, he also did the illustration for the Jesus Storybook Bible, did he not?

Yes, absolutely. Right, so beautifully illustrated, written so perfectly and then you push the button and you hear this voice say the following, I'll push the button right now. Everything was ready. The moment God had been waiting for was here at last. God was coming to help his people just as he promised in the beginning. But how would he come? What would he be like?

What would he do? That's the voice of renowned actor David Suchet, one of the interactive features in this new resource we're making available called The Jesus Storybook Bible, a Christmas Collection by Sally Lloyd-Jones. And we'd like to send this your way for your kids, your grandkids, really any child you know who needs a touch of wonder and needs to know God cares for them this Christmas season. We'll send it to say thank you for your generous donation to help keep these daily studies coming your way here on this station. So contact us today at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514 or call 1-800-821-3300.

We can take your call around the clock 24-7 at 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org. Well, next time as we continue this study of Moses' confrontation with Pharaoh, Pastor Greg brings practical insight on how to stand our ground against our adversary, the devil. Be sure to tune in next time for A New Beginning.

But before we go, Pastor Greg has an important word to close today's program. Hey everybody, a few thoughts about this election that's coming up. As you all know, on November 3rd, we're going to elect the President of the United States. Your vote matters. Listen, every Christian should register and vote. I cannot emphasize that enough. It's our responsibility.

It is our duty, but it is also our privilege. And we really have no right to criticize what's going on in our nation if we don't even take the time to vote for a candidate. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for, but I'll give you some ideas. When I cast my vote, I can tell you there's some things that factor into it.

I can talk about a lot of things, but let me just pick two out in particular. The candidate that will receive my vote will be one that is pro-life. I would never vote for a candidate that would support the aborting of unborn children. Number two, I'm going to vote for a candidate that stands with and supports the nation Israel. God promises a blessing to the people that bless God's people. So those are a couple of things to think about as you go to the voting booth. You vote your conscience, but vote biblically and do vote. This is the day, the day when life begins.